THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ: VIOLENCE; Shiite Cleric's Representative Killed in Iraq After Prayers

By CHRISTINE HAUSER

Published: January 14, 2005

Gunmen assassinated a representative of Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and five other people in an attack south of Baghdad on Wednesday, the cleric's office said on Thursday.

And in an area north of Baghdad on Thursday, 3 people were killed and 13 wounded when a car bomb exploded in front of a Shiite mosque, according to Baghdad's security service, Agence France-Presse reported.

The attacks raised the prospect of sectarian strife ahead of the Jan. 30 elections, and the assassination appeared to be a message to Ayatollah Sistani, who as the most senior cleric of Iraq's Shiite majority strongly supports the vote.

Some leaders of the guerrilla insurgency, including the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, are believed to be trying to inflame tensions between Sunnis and Shiites to help destabilize the country.

In the past month, dozens of Shiites have been killed in at least three large-scale attacks, and some reports say scores of others have died in smaller attacks.

About two weeks ago, a suicide car bomb outside the Baghdad headquarters of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Iraq's largest Shiite political party, killed nine guards and visitors. The party is running in the elections as part of the United Iraqi Alliance coalition, backed by Ayatollah Sistani.

On Dec. 19, in the holy Shiite cities of Najaf and Karbala, car bombers killed at least 61 people.

In the attack Wednesday, the Sistani representative, Sheik Mahmoud al-Madaini, was killed along with his son and four guards after leaving sunset prayers at a mosque in Maidan, a Sunni-dominated city about 12 miles south of the capital, said an official in the ayatollah's office.

Sheik Madaini was one of many such representatives in Iraq, leading people in prayers and passing them the religious edicts of the revered cleric, said Sheik Jamal al-Saghir, another representative. ''I believe he was killed because he asked people to participate in the election,'' Sheik Saghir said, adding that more than 60 Shiites had been killed in Maidan by insurgents, and that many Shiite families had left the city.

Like the attack Wednesday, the bombing Thursday, in the Khan Beni Saad region north of Baghdad, was executed as worshipers were leaving evening prayers.

Insurgents have kept up an unrelenting campaign of attacks before the elections, making foreigners and Iraqis who work with the occupying military their targets. Iraqi security forces and government officials have also been killed in ambushes and bombings that call into question the readiness of security forces to make cities safe for voting on Jan. 30.

Many Iraqis believe the attacks are being waged by former Baathists and Sunni Arabs concerned about the potential political power of Shiites, who form about 60 percent of the population. The Sunni Arab minority had enjoyed dominance under Saddam Hussein.

But there is also a possibility that some attacks on Shiites are meant to provoke sectarian war. In a letter released nearly a year ago that American officials said was written by Mr. Zarqawi, help was sought to start a civil war in Iraq. The letter suggested that attacks on Shiites would prompt counterattacks on Sunnis who would then join the insurgency.

Last month, a message on an audiotape believed to be from Osama bin Laden endorsed Mr. Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq.

In further violence Thursday, seven Iraqis were killed and a Turkish man was kidnapped in front of a Baghdad hotel, an employee of the hotel said. The employee, who out of fear for his safety asked not to be identified, said about 10 gunmen attacked a minibus carrying the Iraqis. The Associated Press reported that the abducted Turk, Abdulkadir Tanrikulu, was a businessman whose construction company was working in Iraq with the Americans.

The American military said in a statement that an American soldier was killed in the northern city of Mosul on Thursday when his patrol hit a roadside bomb, Agence France-Presse reported.

[The military announced Friday that two members of the First Marine Expeditionary Force were killed Thursday in Anbar Province, in western Iraq, Reuters reported. No details were released.]

Prime Minister Ayad Allawi acknowledged this week for the first time that ''pockets'' of Iraq would be too dangerous for voters to cast ballots. His remarks echoed those made last week by the commander of American ground forces here, Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, about parts of four provinces, most of them dominated by Sunni Arabs.

The four are Baghdad; Anbar; Nineveh, which contains Mosul; and Salahadin, which includes Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein.

In stepped-up operations intended to counter the expected surge of violence ahead of the elections, the American military said Thursday that it had rounded up at least 59 men on Wednesday and Thursday suspected of involvement in attacks.

Most of those detentions were in the north-central Sunni heartland and in Mosul. Two more suspects were detained in Baghdad during a search for the killers in the Jan. 4 execution of the Baghdad governor, Ali al-Haidari, the military said.

An American military official, Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste, said at a news conference on Thursday in Baghdad that his troops and Iraqi security forces were ''chasing down the insurgents'' in the four provinces north of Baghdad: Salahadin, Sulaimaniya, Kirkuk and Diyala. ''That will go on continuously up through, to and after the elections,'' he said.

Photo: A British Army vehicle that was part of a convoy was blown onto its side and set ablaze Thursday by an explosive device in Baghdad. (Photo by Atef Hassan/Reuters)